"It's just a dream that I've had to have a food cart of some type for retirement, my retirement," he said.

His cart is the first of its kind in Springfield, where the city hopes to open up more opportunities to food carts.

"The whole idea is to make downtown a destination," said Kevin Ko, community development specialist for Springfield. "We want people to come to downtown because the more people are downtown, the better it is for everybody."

Ko said vendors will now be allowed to be on private, commericially zoned properties and city streets.

"The food cart program is designed to take away some of the regulatory barriers that have kept food carts in downtown Springfield in the past," Ko said.